Actions by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) have generated a political furor
By Gregory Elich
Actions by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) have
generated a political furor that is growing by the day, pitting the
ruling New Frontier Party against the main opposition Democratic Party
and threatening the existence of the Unified Progressive Party.
The NIS intervened in the election of December 2012 in an endeavor to
bring victory to conservative candidates. NIS director Won Sei-hoon
ordered the agency’s psychological warfare division to launch a campaign
to discredit liberal and left political candidates. Agents were
instructed to each create three or four posts on the internet per day,
praising the ruling party and attacking the opposition. Three teams were
tasked to carry out this mission, and one team alone generated an
average of 1,200 to 1,600 posts per month. Won was motivated by a
paranoid McCarthyist frame of mind, and he was heard to say, “If there
is a person or a force which condemns the government and the ruling
party, they are no different from North Korea even if they are our
citizens.”
The psychological warfare teams used IP switching software to prevent
tracking. Many of the posts smeared liberal and left candidates as
“followers of North Korea.” According to South Korean investigators
working with the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office, the NIS
utilized software to generate millions of automated tweets and re-tweets
of their postings, flooding the internet.
In a further boost to the campaign of presidential candidate Park
Geun-hye and other conservative candidates, the NIS leaked excerpts from
a classified document to the press and to the ruling New Frontier
Party, containing a transcript taken from the October 2007 meetings
between liberal South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il. The excerpts leaked by the NIS dealt with
discussions of the Northern Limit Line, the western maritime border
between the two Koreas. The NIS intentionally distorted the excerpts it
provided and fabricated content in order to make it appear that Roh was
offering to turn over South Korean territorial waters to North Korea,
expecting the resulting outcry to damage the chances of liberal
presidential candidate Moon Jae-in.
The NIS removed a statement from the version leaked to the New
Frontier Party, in which Roh stated that the Northern Limit Line should
not be changed. In another example, the NIS spliced together a phrase
from a morning session with a phrase from an afternoon session so as to
misrepresent Roh’s position. The NIS also altered words and phrases, and
inserted content of its own invention into the transcript in order to
discredit the liberal candidates.
Two days before the December 19 election, Kim Moo-seong, head of
Park’s election campaign, publicly revealed quotes from the fabricated
transcript, and angrily announced that he was “filled with indignation”
over its content. His comments received broad media coverage, which
helped to swing votes in favor of Park.
It was not until after the election that the extent of NIS meddling
was revealed, and Won Sei-hoon was indicted in June. In response to
demands by opposition parties that the NIS be reformed, President Park
Geun-hye merely asked the agency to come up with a proposal to reform
itself. Public anger swelled, and demonstrators packed Seoul Plaza for
weekly candlelight demonstrations, calling for the NIS to be brought
under control. Before long, candlelight demonstrations spread to cities
and towns throughout South Korea, and it was clear the issue would not
go away.
The Unified Progressive Party was at the forefront of efforts to
reform the National Intelligence Service. In July, I was among a group
of international guests who met with members of the Unified Progressive
Party, including Representative Lee Seok-ki. A man with an infectious
smile, he joked with us that he was the most hated person in the
National Assembly. The conservatives loathed Lee for his outspokenness
about the need to reform the National Intelligence Service. Nor had they
forgiven him for the leading role he played in stopping the nomination
of Korean-American Kim Jeong-hoon for a ministerial post in the South
Korean government, due to Kim’s service as an advisor to the CIA and as
director of In-Q-tel, a technology company that works closely with the
CIA. Retribution against Lee Seok-ki would not be long in coming.
As the debate over the NIS in the National Assembly intensified and
militant mass demonstrations continued to call for reform, the National
Intelligence Service struck back on August 28, raiding the homes and
offices of 18 members of the Unified Progressive Party. Three party
officials were arrested and charged with treason. As the principal
target for vengeance, Lee Seok-ki would later be arrested after a vote
in the National Assembly stripped him of immunity.
Wild claims were made, as the NIS charged that Lee headed a group
called the “Revolutionary Organization,” which it said was planning an
armed uprising in the event of war with North Korea. The quotations
attributed to Lee were provocative, and were said to originate from a
recording provided by an informer who attended two meetings of a local
branch of the Unified Progressive Party on May 10 and 12.
In a familiar pattern, the NIS illegally leaked selected excerpts to
the New Frontier Party and media outlets. The result was as intended,
and a furious trial by media ensued, even though the courts had not yet
ruled on the admissibility of the transcript as evidence. Lee claimed
that he was innocent of all charges, and the NIS had fabricated the
quotations it had attributed to him. He charged the NIS with engaging in
“political persecution” against his party.
Lee Jung-hee, chairperson of the Unified Progressive Party, announced
at a press conference, “The Blue House, facing an unprecedented crisis,
and the National Intelligence Service, on the eve of its dissolution
after being exposed of rigging the last election, are conducting a
Yushin era witch hunt in the 21st century. This is an attempt
to silence the candlelight protests as the truth of the fraudulent
crimes of the National Intelligence Service are exposed, and voices
demanding accountability from President Park Geun-hye intensify.” Lee
warned, “Just as they accused all citizens who supported the opposition
in the last election as ‘pro-North sympathizers’, they will try to crush
and eliminate all democratic forces by labeling them criminal
insurgents.”
There were those who questioned the timing of the raid. The NIS
claimed that it had been investigating Lee Seok-ki for three years, and
the meetings that provided its rationale took place three and a half
months beforehand. Why was this moment chosen, they wondered? The NIS
was on the ropes. The National Assembly had completed its investigation
of the NIS, and the opposition parties were demanding that the NIS
should be banned from domestic intelligence gathering. According to a
source familiar with the functioning of the NIS, “This investigation
looks suspiciously like an attempt by the NIS to justify its existence.
It may be intended to block efforts to reduce and eliminate the agency’s
domestic and investigative branches, which are at its heart.”
The Unified Progressive Party conducted its own fact-finding
investigation into the May 10 and 12 meetings which had been organized
by the party chair of the Gyeong-gi province chapter. Party members
attended a lecture by Lee Seok-ki and participated in discussions about
the situation on the Korean Peninsula. In a press conference, party
chair Lee Jung-hee declared, “There is no evidence whatsoever that the
130 people in attendance are part of a so-called Revolutionary
Organization. There is only the NIS’ allegation, as it attempts to bury
our party through a baseless trial by media.” Party members denied that
the Revolutionary Organization existed, and accused the NIS of
concocting the name as a means of adding a sinister tone to the
proceedings.
In talking with those who attended the meetings, party officials
investigating the matter found that many of the statements quoted in the
media differed substantially from the actual words. It was apparent
that the NIS was once again manufacturing “evidence.”
At one of the May meetings, there were seven simultaneous small group
discussions, and the NIS informer was able to record comments only in
the session he attended. Lee Jung-hee pointed out, “An inquiry into the
discussions of the six other small groups revealed that they were quite
different from the conversation in the group that was recorded. Their
conversations were about the immediate difficulties they would face in
trying to sustain life in the event of war, ways to survive, and the
need to raise public consciousness to oppose war and realize peace;
there was no discussion of acquiring weapons or destroying vital
facilities.”
Some of those in attendance recalled that at the beginning of the
Korean War, the South Korean government rounded up leftists and executed
them by the thousands. Some estimates place the number of dead as high
as 100,000. They expressed concern over a potential repeat if a new war
arose, given how the conservatives consistently branded their party as
“servants of North Korea” and “terrorists.”
In the discussion that was recorded, two hotheads suggested arming
themselves and destroying facilities in the event of war. Other group
members roundly rejected these comments, saying that such actions were
not an option. One group member responded, “Getting firearms is
nonsensical and destroying a radar base with high technology and hacking
is too.” Those who advocated force were ridiculed by the others.
“Please look what the participants did after the meeting,” Lee
Jung-hee urged. “They did not do anything related to taking over guns or
preparing to destroy communications. Even though the NIS put a lot of
manpower and money into the raid, it found nothing like a gun or a
disturbance device.”
The only evidence for the charges made against the Unified
Progressive Party is the video, and we only have the word of the NIS for
its content. There is nothing to corroborate the cherry-picked and
fabricated quotations that it has leaked. Lee Jung-hee believes the
video recording may never be made publicly available. Because no warrant
was issued, there is a good chance that the courts may rule the
recording inadmissible as evidence.
She called on the NIS to release the original video in its entirety –
and without manipulation – so that people could ascertain the truth of
the matter and judge for themselves. “While the NIS did not present the
original video, a reckless trial in the court of public opinion has
happened. The NIS did not precisely follow legal procedures, and they
have infringed on judiciary rights by leaking collected evidence
illegally, which violates the defendants’ rights that are guaranteed in a
normal judiciary process.”
“The most important thing is truth,” Lee continued. “Even if we are
in a bad situation, there should be no editing or deleting the facts.”
The ruling New Frontier Party is using the dubious charges against
the Unified Progressive Party to achieve its own political aims. It
called upon the Democratic Party to end its participation in the mass
demonstrations against the National Intelligence Service. For its part,
the NIS is expected to argue that the charges against the Unified
Progressive Party prove that it ought to retain authority to conduct
domestic surveillance and intelligence gathering.
The New Frontier Party has filed a motion in the National Assembly to
strip Lee Seok-ki of his seat, despite the fact that his trial has not
yet taken place and in South Korea one is legally presumed to be
innocent until proven guilty.
In a gross violation of democratic principles, moves are afoot to
forcibly disband the Unified Progressive Party. The leadership of the
New Frontier Party has asked its members to obtain data in support of
that action. In May, conservative groups filed petitions to have the
Unified Progressive Party banned. The Ministry of Justice is looking
into the possibility of responding to those requests and asking the
Constitutional Court to rule in favor of dissolving the Unified
Progressive Party.
There is no question that the ruling party finds the views of the
Unified Progressive Party distasteful, and it would be delighted to
remove the party from the political scene. If the Unified Progressive
Party is disbanded, its 100,000 members will be cast adrift from direct
participation in the political process.
According to party literature, among the Unified Progressive Party’s
goals is to “create a new society in which progressive democracy is
established.” The party “has campaigned for free education, free
healthcare, and tax on the wealthy as progressive alternatives.” It
advocates an end to privatization and a strengthening of public
services. The Unified Progressive Party “is the only one that identifies
itself as a party for independence, peace and reunification in keeping
with the vision” of joint South Korea-North Korea declarations. The
strongest advocates of such values will be silenced if the ruling party
has its way.
Representative Lee Seok-ki is undergoing daily grilling by the NIS.
Like other members of the Unified Progressive Party who are being
interrogated, he is refusing to respond to all questions as a protest
against political persecution. Reports indicate that the NIS is strongly
considering adding an additional charge against Lee, aiding the enemy,
which would carry with it a potential death penalty. Lee may be fighting
not only for justice, but also his very life.
If it is not reined in, and soon, the National Intelligence Service
could take the nation down the path to repression once again. When South
Korea was under military rule, for an individual to advocate
progressive policies was an invitation to arrest, torture, and in some
cases execution. The years-long struggle for democracy in South Korea
brought a hard-won victory. The ruling New Frontier Party cannot be
allowed to throw away that victory.
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